you know, just starting with the youth in the community. But hopefully, I do feel that this work will,

you know, be carried on, to the decisions that the youth make, to decisions that their friends make,

to decisions that their parents begin to make. So I think I’m making a small difference, but I think that’s where it begins.

Today, 25 youth and I, we painted a mural for the Escojo initiative, and that was just promoting to youth

to make healthy decisions to protect themselves against HIV and AIDS. So, logo was,

“Escojo mi vida por [words?] y SIDA.” And so, that was just making healthy decisions

and protecting yourself against AIDS and HIV.

This past weekend, in April, the Banco Mondial, World Bank, and European Union, hosted the Feria de Desarollo,

which was a competition for innovative youth projects. And, along with the competition, they selected 50 finalists

to come to the capital to present their projects, innovative youth projects, as well as another 40 NGO organizations.

And I brought down a group of youth to visit the different - to look at the different projects,

to meet the different organizations,

and to attend the different workshops. And it’s so important exposing youth to, you know, youth from urban areas

to positive conferences or Feria de Desarollo’s expos or fairs.

Peace Corps is special because volunteers get to work firsthand with community members. We build personal relationships.

We are in the homes, we are in the community centers, we are in the organizations, we are just amongst the people,

making decisions with them, interacting with them on a daily basis. And I don’t think that a lot of NGOs

have that same unique opportunity that we have to actually live with the people, to actually become their friends, 00:02:11.100,00:02:17.000 and just to get to know them outside of a level that’s just development, that’s on a personal level. �